No !

“No.”

Such a simple word. Nothing ambiguous about it. It doesn’t have a lot of letters. And it’s easy to say. “No.”

Now, someone finally said it to Donald Trump. Maybe you missed it, with the headlines that talked about a $1.6 trillion dollar budget being passed by Congress that the President signed under protest. Or, under something. It was hard to tell from his rants and the pundits' pronouncements.

But, Congress voted - Democrats and Republicans, if you were looking for that - and the budget was signed. And, hanging over the entire process was that simple word, that elegant word. That completely unambiguous word. “No.”

It is, simply, the strongest of negative responses. Tell a small child to go to bed, and they will say “no.” Same thing you say to them when they reach for candy at the supermarket check-out line. “No.”

Grown-ups use the word when they are dating. I used to hear “no” a lot. Ask your boss for a raise, and you will likely hear it too. A lawyer might charge you $300 an hour and give you a 30-page document explaining why your neighbor can’t run a business out of their garage. That letter, boiled down to its true meaning, says “no.”

Those kinds of examples are true for almost all of us. Almost everyone is used to hearing “no” from their parents and their teachers and their friends, their classmates and the people they marry. From police officers and the bouncers guarding the door at a new club. You even hear it from the people taking reservations for airline flights.

“No.”

And, yet, there is an exception or two, special rules carved out by the rich and powerful. They are the lucky people that no one ever says “no” to.

 It’s something we all envy, at least at first. Most people, sooner or later, will dream of being a king or a queen. Heck, we used to say everyone’s home is their castle. Absolute power!

Now imagine getting the best table at any restaurant you want, getting a front-row seat to every play on Broadway, flying anywhere you like in your private plane whenever the mood strikes you. And, you can even avoid drug addiction by just saying “no” and going to a really expensive private clinic anywhere in the world. There, away from prying eyes, you can get a couple of weeks of gentle treatment and - presto - you have been detoxified and cured. Life is wonderful again.

But, it’s a dream with horrible real-world consequences. (You can see where I am going here. Donald Trump is a real victim of not having people say “no” to him as a child or as a grown up, not even when many of his corporations failed to pay contractors or live up to their contracts. He was protected by some well-paid lawyers and some business-friendly provisions of the law. Now, we have become his second-hand victims.)

Get ready to live through his tantrums to come. The people who said “no” to him must be punished. But, so many of them. Where to start? Where to start? Transgender folks in the military clearly won’t be enough. And, there isn’t much left for him to say about Hillary. His real betrayers are the Republicans who - I am sure he believes - were only able to take over Congress because of him.

Betrayal is such an ugly thing. And, who better to punish it than our President.

Imagine. They said “no” to him.On his very own budget. No money for the wall. Too much money for pork barrel spending that didn’t even give him a cut.

 Now, let’s just all watch what happens. Just as soon as those investigations blow over. 

Or, maybe, before they blow over. Just in case.